A tree to 40 m high by over 3 m in girth, bole cylindrical and long to 27 m, with high narrow buttresses, of the evergreen and deciduous forest in damp situations, throughout the Region from Senegal to W Cameroons and extending across Africa to Egypt, Sudan, Uganda and Zaïre.Till quite recently most literature concerning this species in the Region has been placed under A. congensis Engl. The latter species is however relatively rare and limited only to S Nigeria. Such references more correctly apply to A. boonei De Wild.(28).The wood is yellowish white, soft, light, fine-textured, sap and heart-woods undifferentiated, interspersed with latex vessels and inclined to be gummy but works well. It is permeable and seasons well and is suitable for light carpentry, veneers, boxes, mouldings, match-splints, etc. It is perishable in the ground, and is not resistant to termites and borers, nor to blue stain unless treated with preservative (13, 16). Density is 0·5 fresh, 0·45 dry (24). In Sierra Leone it is considered a timber of secondary importance (9), and, as its Mende name (kalo-wuli, wooden plate tree) implies, it is used for making wooden bowls and plates. In Liberia it is used for bowls, toys, masks, canoes, etc. Export prospects are said to be doubtful but there is local industrial potential for domestic articles, wood-wool for packing bananas, matches etc. (28). In Ivory Coast it is used for benches and domestic things (4) and is said to be suitable for joinery and cabinetry (24). In Ghana it is carved into dolls and fetish emblems and made into dishes, platters, basins and stools (7, 8, 26), and it is currently recommended for boxes and crates, handcrafts, general joinery, pattern-making, plywood and veneers (3). The well-known Asante stools are often made of it, as also are stools in S Nigeria and Cameroons where it is made into carved toys, spoons, clogs, plates, images ’devil masks’, etc. (10). It is officially recommended in Nigeria for the outer box of matchboxes (2). The Ijo carve small paddles from it for use in dancing (29). The sound box of an Yoruba musical instrument, asọlogun, a kind of zither, is made of it (27). In the Cameroons it is made into flasks for holding powder and into canoes (10); in the Sudan into boats and war-drums (10); in Uganda for bowls for holding food (11), and in hut-construction for rafters and window-frames (25).The bark, and the root, are febrifugal and are said in Nigeria to be very effective in the case of ordinary malaria (1, 10, 22). A bark-decoction is also taken in Ghana for malaria (26) and in Cameroun (20). The bark of an Alstonia sp. is used in India for malaria and chronic diarrhoea. It is said to be inferior to cinchona bark but leaves no after-effects, e.g. no buzzing in the ears (22). In decoction it is used in Ivory Coast — Upper Volta to cleanse suppurating sores and exposed fractures (19); in Nigeria for sores and ulcers (1); on snakebite in Liberia (28); and for snakebite and arrow-poison in Cameroons (Mildbraed fide 10). The bark, leaves and roots are all used to relieve rheumatic pain and other pains (1, 6, 10, 28). The bark has a widespread use in Ghana to assuage toothache, and the Akan name sindru is a corruption of the words meaning ‘tooth medicine’ (26). In Sierra Leone, a chicken killed by a male child is cooked with pounded bark; the stomach becomes exceedingly bitter and is taken by those, especially women, suffering from intestinal disorders. The boy who killed the chicken must also partake. This treatment is also followed for curing barrenness in women over 30 years of age, and by women with umbilical suppuration — after eating, some pounded bark is bandaged over the navel (5). The bark is taken in macerate in Ivory Coast for jaundice, and sap for cough and sore throat, and externally for some skin-complaints (6). In Ghana a decoction is given after childbirth to promote expulsion of the afterbirth (16). The bark has anthelmintic use in Sierra Leone: it may be boiled and the liquor strained and taken, especially for children (12), or simply left to stand in a bottle of water (15).Two indolic alkaloids, echitamine and echitamidine, have been determined in the bark, which in concentration appears to vary with location: Ghana 0·38–0·56%, Nigeria 0.15–0.31%, and Cameroons 0·18%, total alkaloids, principally echitamine. This is paralysing to the motor nerves similar to the action of curare. A lactone and triterpenes, amyrine and lupeol, have also been reported. (6, 14, 16, 18, 22.)The latex is dangerous to the eyes and can cause blindness. It gives an inferior resinous coagulate which has been used to adulterate better rubbers. It has been used as a birdlime (10). The latex is applied to snake-bite after lancing in Ivory Coast, or it may be taken by draught (19). The latex is boiled in Nigeria and the concoction is taken for fever, especially in children (1). In Casamance (Senegal) latex is applied to refractory skin-troubles in children (17, 18). It is also smeared onto ‘Calabar Swellings’ caused by Filaria infection in Cameroons and the area is bandaged with latex and the crushed bark of Erythrophleum guineense (Leguminosae: Caesalpinioideae) (Mildbraed fide 10). It is considered galactogenic and is given to Baakpe women of the Cameroons Mountain area at childbirth (21). The latex is supposed to be an antidote for Strophanthus poison.The leaves, pulped to a mash, are applied topically in Ivory Coast to reduce oedemas (19), and leaf-sap is used to cleanse sores in Casamance (18).The tree has religious association for the Akan races in Ghana as shown by the names meaning ‘Sky-God’s tree.’ This arises from the whorled branches of a young shoot being used to support fetish bowls holding food for spirits at domestic shrines (10, 26).

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